Educating Excellence: Mrs. Hancock's Website
Follow the excellence
  • Home
    • About Me
    • Blog
    • Calendars
    • General Resources >
      • For Students
      • For Teachers
    • Skills Support for All Classes
    • Teachers Websites and Wikis
  • MSU
  • 8th grade SMS
    • Article of the Week (AoW)
    • Class Blogs >
      • Advisory Blog
      • Period 1 SS Blog
      • Period 2 SS Blog
      • Period 4 SS Blog
      • Period 5 SS Blog
      • Period 7 SS Blog
    • Curriculum and Daily Lessons >
      • Unit 1: First People and Exploration 2016
      • Unit 2: Colonialism and Independence 2016
      • Unit 3: The American Revolution 2016
      • Unit 4: Constitution & Early Republic 2016
      • Unit 5: Expansion and Reform
      • Socratic Seminar
      • Yearlong Timeline
    • 8th grade Yearlong Projects
  • NHD
  • Past Classes and Curriculum
    • Reading Junior Scholastic Online... Speech to Text Tip!
    • 7A Social Studies: Sacajawea Falcons >
      • Ancient Rome
      • Byzantine Empire and Religion
      • Disclosure Document
      • Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution and Exploration
      • Middle Ages
      • National History Day
      • Native American Societies
      • Renaissance and Reformation
      • WINGS Cultural Fair
      • World History Timeline and ZINE
    • 6th grade Social Studies at KMCP >
      • Unit 6: Ancient Europe
    • 7th grade Social Studies (from Delta MS) >
      • Unit 1: Personal Finance
      • Unit 2: Africa
      • Unit 3: Middle East
      • Unit 4: SE Asia and Australia
      • Unit 5: Central Asia
      • Unit 7: Europe Today
      • Final Project: House of Wax
    • 8th grade Social Studies (from Delta MS) >
      • Unit 1: Personal Finance
      • Unit 2: Colonialsim
      • Unit 3: Revolution
      • Unit 4: Constitution
      • Unit 5: S.S. Skills
      • Unit 6: National History Day >
        • National History Day Examples
      • Unit 7: Growth and Expansion
      • Unit 8: Civil War
      • Unit 9: Reconstruction
    • FOCUS Class (from Delta MS)
    • Resources For Students
  • Washington DC Field Lesson
    • Scavenger Hunt
    • Writing Representatives
  • Professional Portfolio
    • Professional Resume
    • Letters of Recommendation
    • In the Media

8th grade

Learn how to think like a "history detective." Check out this PBS website with lots of resources for students and teachers!

History Detectives

Yearlong Project Options: Choose ONE of the four to focus on.

C-SPAN Studen CAM 2017: What urgent issue should our next president address?

The following information is taken from their website, “StudentCam is C-SPAN's annual national video documentary competition that encourages students to think critically about issues that affect our communities and our nation.  Students in grades 6-12 were asked to create a short (5-7 minute) video documentary on a topic related to the competition theme.  Students may compete individually, or in teams of either 2 or 3 members. All documentaries must contain a small amount of supporting C-SPAN footage that relates to the chosen topic. C-SPAN’s philosophy is to show varying sides of each issue. Winning StudentCam documentaries will also show a variety of points of view related to the chosen topic.”  This year’s competition opens after Labor Day, and the theme is, “Your Message to Washington” – What is the most urgent issue for the new President and Congress to address in 2017?  The final product of this project is a documentary than can be uploaded or turned into a DVD. If you are competing the projects are due January 20th to the C-SPAN student cam website.

National History Day (NHD): Take a stand

This fall interested students should pick a topic that relates to the 2017 theme: Taking a Stand in History.  Students will create a thesis and conduct in-depth historical research.  By December students should complete their initial research of primary and secondary sources.  Starting in January students should complete their National History Day project (final products - documentary, exhibit, paper, performance or website) and their Annotated Works Cited.  In March the top individuals or groups will have a chance to revise their projects and then go to the State National History Day Competition – date and location TBD.  From there, the top two projects in each category qualify for nationals which is held in June at College Park, Maryland just out of Washington, DC.  SMS students have successfully participated at the State and National levels the past two years.

Project Citizen: Understand public policy and make a difference

Are you interested in solving problems? If so, this is the project for you.  Project Citizen guides students in learning about public policy, conducting research about a community (local, state, national, or global) problem, creating their own policies to solve community issues, and creating an action plan.  Students develop a portfolio of all of their work (research, letters, emails, etc), and present to a panel of community members or experts on the policy topic.  This provides students an opportunity to see how government works, and to engage in the real world.  At a prior school, Project Citizen, led to students advocating for a city recycling program which involved the students attending meetings with the Mayor, County Commissioners, and the School Board. Eventually a recycling program was implemented, and the students were a part of that process!  The final product of this project includes the portfolio and a display board.

Personal History: ​Connect your families stories to history

Learning about your families history is a valuable endeavor.  Through this project students will begin by looking into their family tree including when and where their ancestors lived. Students may engage in “detective work” using online tools to learn more about family members and to place their personal stories in the greater context of U.S. History.  For example if a student discovers that their great-grandfather enlisted in World War II they would also look into why and what his role was.  They may also create a map that shows the various locations where he trained and served.  Finally, students would also need to develop a general understanding of what World War II was.  The final product of this project could be a book, documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Possible useful websites: check out the Bozeman Library link (let me know if you do NOT have a library card) and https://www.loc.gov/folklife/familyfolklife/index.html

Wednesday, October 26th: WARM UP - Students skimmed the first paragraph or two of this website article about teenagers (and adults) addiction to cell phones. Then students modeled writing a note card and source card when they wrote ONE note about the article, and completed a citation (using the MLA format) for the article.  You can use OSLIS, a citation tool/maker, to help you, too. Review with your teammates to make sure you did it correctly.

​As a class we watched: the 
Common Sense Media video (5 minute) about "finding high quality sites". If the video does not work skim this handout that helps you evaluate whether a website is trustworthy or not.

​Then students researched the rest of class.

Tuesday, October 25th: WARM UP- Students reviewed their quizzes on the colonies and events leading up to the American Revolution/Declaration of Independence. If you were absent: analyze the images below (pick at least two). What misconceptions or questions did students have about this question... why do you think they didn't get the question right? OR re-write the question to make it stronger. AFTER warm up students reviewed the videos below and then researched.

Monday, October 24th: If you have not chosen your yearlong project there are descriptions below. Since I am not here today we are going to do research in class. You have two videos you need to watch BEFORE you begin working:

1) Watch the YouTube video (about 10 minutes) included below which is me talking you through what resources I want you to start with, and how I want you to take notes.
     - Here are the note card and source card examples with directions
     - Here is the MLA formatting handout, so you know what to include such as the author, title, etc. when you make your source cards
     - Here are the past worksheets (plus more resources) page 12 in this pdf is the "Research Strategy" worksheet and page 15 is the "Topic Selection" worksheet.  The packet is from a couple years ago, so the NHD theme was different. Here is the family tree worksheet we are using. Finally here is the powerpoint reviewed in the video.
     - For FAMILY HISTORY check out the Bozeman Library link ** Let me know if you do not have a public library card - start bringing it to social studies

2) Watch the Common Sense Media video (5 minute) about "finding high quality sites". If the video does not work skim this handout that helps you evaluate whether a website is trustworthy or not.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.